Defining moment

Tom Hanks was full of horsefeathers and baloney, you know. There is crying in baseball.

Those were not seasonal allergies, after all, that prompted the outbreak of sniffles men of a certain age tried to suppress while Kevin Costner and his dad had a catch up there on the big screen in "A Field of Dreams." Yeah, half of those men, being men, would never admit to tearing up a mite -- just a mite, you know -- during that scene. Yeah, women, some of them, sometimes found the entire premise of the film silly and saccharine and full of clumsy, over-the-top sentimentality.

But as every guy says who ever got something in his eye during that scene, to hell with 'em. It's our National Pastime and we'll cry if we want to.

Even if the Pastime, as the Blob has observed here on more than one occasion, is mostly Past its Time in America, a relic like eight-track tapes and GTOs and carhops on roller skates.

That's why this right here was the defining baseball moment of the year for a lot of us of that certain age.

Enjoy. Tissues available upon request.